1. Field of Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of devices that can be assembled by coupling. As a more specific example, the present disclosure relates to devices that can be assembled by coupling to connect an end effector to a robotic arm of a robotic surgical system.
2. Description of Related Art
A robotic surgical system may perform surgical tasks, including providing haptic feedback or maneuvering a surgical tool to, for example, assist in removing tissue (e.g., bone) or producing an incision. The surgical tool can be attached to an end effector that is coupled to a mount on an arm of the robotic surgical system.
Because of the precision generally required for surgical tasks, a control system (e.g., a computer aided navigation system) of the robotic surgical system is designed to operate with highly accurate positional information of the tool. As such, during assembly of the robotic surgical system, the end effector and its mount on the robotic arm are assembled as a calibrated pair using specialized calibration equipment to achieve a high degree of precision and repeatability when mounting the end effector to the robotic arm, which may be a time-consuming and laborious process, even for specialists. Additionally, because the end effector and mount are calibrated together, they must be used as a pair. Thus, the end effector and mount lack interchangeability, meaning that the end effector cannot be reliably coupled to other mounts and vice versa.
During use of the robotic surgical system, it may be necessary to remove and later re-couple the end effector to the robotic arm or to replace the original end effector with a new end effector. When the original end effector is re-coupled to the robotic arm or the new end effector is attached to the robotic arm, it is necessary to achieve a degree of positional accuracy and load carrying ability that are sufficient for proper operation of the robotic surgical system.